Comments on recent updated data of Hatshepsut

by koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

conjoint lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

Discovery channel of 2009 presented fascinating evidence and data surrounding Hatshepsut.

The director of the Cairo museum should be credited for his very convincing link that his team of experts established identifying the correct mummy of Hatshepsut. Dr. Zahi Hawass, Egypt's secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities is throughout the narrator.

They selected the nanny of Hatshepsut, the screaming mummy, a strong woman and also a serious looking woman. All these mummies were carried from the third floor of the Cairo Museum to be reinvestigated. Most of them were found before 1908.

Egyptologist Hawass played the role of scientist, detective and scholar who was very eager to establish the links.

In Tomb KV 60 about 60 persons were dumped in the 21st dynasty by priests. Most are men but two unidentified women were placed next to each other in the tomb. Between them a box was placed with the name of Hatshepsut on it.

Inside the box was the liver, other intestines and tooth of Hatshepsut but they could not open it. Siemens in Germany has borrowed them a scanner that was able to scan the box and with experts they could establish that the tooth in the box was a molar of Hatshepsut that fit the strong woman the best.

She was about 40 years when she died. She suffered probably from diabetes, had a tumor in the lower abdomen and an absess in the tooth gums on the left. That actually led to a swollen situation where she could not eat any longer and she died very painfully. They pulled out some of her front teeth, which was the common practice in those days. But it did not help her at all. Thus she died in pain.

Her images and cartouches were destroyed because they found that the astronomer teacher Senenmut was maybe her lover. In his tomb he had a small note about the love he had for the king of the two lands.

A number of similar data was shown both at Deir el Bahari, where Senenmut's name appears but another name, probably that of Hatshepsut was erased.

Some scholars believed that the one who defaced her presence was Thutmosis III. That is correct since he hated her.

At Karnak one can find the evidence that Amenhotep II was placed in the place of Hatshepsut's name. Scholars thought it to be Thutmosis III, but in my view this is not likely since Amenhotep II is not the oldest son of Thutmosis III. Furthermore, the oldest son died the night of the Exodus in 1450 BCE a few hours before his father. Thutmosis III was not found after the event in the Nile. Abaas tried to show us the mummy of Thutmosis III in the Cairo Museum, but that is not the case. It cannot be Thutmosis III. He washed away and was never found. X-rays that were done in Chicago on the mummy in the coffin of Thutmosis III, wrapped even with the linen written by Amenhotep II, his son, shows that he is 35 years old, probably the age of the oldest son who died a few hours before Thutmosis III.

The Thutmosis III identification in the Cairo Museum stands under serious review. As the identification of the Amenhotep II linen around that 35 year old mummy. It makes more sense that Thutmosis III was not found and that the linen he wrapped around the mummy was his older brother since his father was never found. I have no information how dr. Hawass made his identification of Thutmosis III mummy in the Cairo Museum.

One must remember that Thutmosis III was not found in his tomb but also in KV60?

She built the temple of Deir al Behari as a showcase. She wanted to say to the world of her time, I can do it, also it seems as if she was grooming Neferure her daughter to be her successor.

We know that Thutmosis III was in Gaza when news reached him that she died. He jumped on a horse and race down to Karnak very fast to receive recognition from the priests (info from one of William Albright's students, prof. dr. Charles Fensham).

Senenmut was a very interesting astronomer and it seems that Moses had his schooling under him. The reason we know it is that Moses, when he wrote Job, knew technical detail about the planets and constelations and also that the earth is hanging on nothing. He did not share the view that the earth rests on pillars.

At Karnak was her needlee and probably the largest needle in the world. Under its foundation they found two statues holding hands. The name of the statue was an ancestor Neferhotep. Did she share the same fate as him to choose him to hold hands with?

Did Hatshepsut have a passion for Hebrews, like Moses and with his disappearance due to his killing of the Egyptian, did she miss him so much that Senenmut was her console?

Was the Exodus such an embarassment to Egypt at and after 1450 BCE that Amenhotep II had to deface the cartouches of Hatshepsut out of anger to what happened to his father, and secondly, to reject her for her passion for Hebrews, meaning that she was attached to Moses? Moses killed the Egyptian in 1490 BCE and had to flee at that time thus, from that time Hatshepsut experienced an enormous loss in her life. Did she groom Moses for kingship prior to 1490 BCE, giving him the best education in Egyptian Universities, palace education and classes with Senenmut, the astronomical professor of the Ancient Egyptian university?

Granting that we stay within the boundaries of facts and evidence, I probably have a right to my own view. One thing is for sure, they wanted to erase anywhere they could find, the name of Hatshepsut or her images. Scholars are puzzled by such enormous hatred. 

The passion that Hatshepsut may have had for Moses, that spilt over to Senenmut, the astronomy professor and architect of Deir el Behari, was never described by Moses in Exodus. He just mentioned the death of Hatshepsut in one line: during those long years, the king of Egypt died. Why long? Long because it was really long, 40 years. Long because he missed his friends and relatives in Egypt. Long because he missed also Hatshepsut?

We do not know if Senenmut was actually a Jewish-Egyptian astronomy professor. Did Hatshepsut chose Senenmut since he was the favored teacher of Moses in astronomy? Was Moses and Senenmut great friends? I am convinced that he taught Moses since Moses' view, as was said above about Job, his view of astronomy was very elevated. The proximity of Hatshepsut to Moses, Moses to the palace, Senenmut to Hatshepsut and Senenmut to astronomy, link Moses' astronomical understanding with Senenmut.

The investigative journey of Dr. Hawass and his team led them through the massive crypts beneath Egypt and into the depths of the Cairo Museum. Using knowledge of royal Egyptian mummification and clues from two known tombs linked to Hatshepsut, the team narrowed their search for Hatshepsut to just four mummies from thousands of unidentified corpses.

Computed tomography (CT) scans allowed the scientists to link distinct physical traits of the Hatshepsut mummy to that of her ancestors. The search was further narrowed to two possibilities both from the tomb of Hatshepsut's nanny but the final clue lay within a canopic box inscribed with the female Pharaoh's name. A scan of the box found a tooth that, when measured, perfectly matched a missing upper molar in one of the two mummies.

The priests of the 21st dynasty have dumped Hatshepsut in the tomb of her nanny. This is the time of Solomon and Solomon married Pharoah's daughter. Tomb robberies were a problem during this time.

Egyptologist Dr. Kara Cooney also took part in the investigation.

Cooney is still young and her observations, although fresh and creative, she suffers sometimes from a lack of  comprehensiveness. It is probably better to call her an upcoming Egyptologist than an Egyptologist.  She is still on her way of becoming one. Her conclusions on Hatshepsut are not all very clear.

The following conclusions can be presented:

1. Thutmosis III cannot be in any museum. He drowned the night of the Exodus.

2. The detail about Hatshepsut is very interesting surrounding the causes of her death.

3. To use Thutmosis III to get a CT profile of Hatshepsut, is not a good idea since Thutmosis III is the son of a streetwoman through her husband who was her half-brother. A direct link with Hatshepsut is thus not so clear. The methodology of the Hawass team here on this point raises a yellow card.

4. Dr. Cooney's information is valid and interesting but without the biblical evidence and chronology, she made some small chronological blunders; with the age of Hatshepsut when she got married etc.

5. It is maybe true that Hawass suffers from a subconscious desire to be famous by discovering "for the first time" something, but taken the data that he presented from the box connected to Hatshepsut's molar position on the mummy next to it, the link is established conclusively.

6. Fascinating is the reality of the situation that the very arms of this mummy, called Hatshepsut once held Moses. Hardly any Jewish person is aware of this reality. Hawass and Cooney are also not aware of it since they are not aware that biblical chronology and Egyptian history link Moses and Hatshepsut in this manner.

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